Specialist Crime Division
The powerful new division of Police Scotland will tackle serious crime such as murders, rapes, drugs offences and human trafficking.
The division will comprise of more than 2000 officers and replaces the existing Serious Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.
It will be headed up by Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingston and will also have responsibility for the national and regional intelligence bureaux, border control and counter-terrorism.
Fugitives
A specialist Fugitives Unit will target serious offenders on the run from Scotland, as well as foreign criminals who may be hiding out in the country.
The unit will allow officers to travel to other countries to trace and arrest wanted criminals. It will draw on the worldwide, multimillion-pound resources of bodies such as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, Interpol and Europol, and work in co-operation with police in other countries and the International Co-operation Unit at the Crown Office.
Road policing
An elite national road traffic unit will be put in place under the new force amid plans to put more traffic officers on the country's road.
The Trunk Roads Patrol Group will be tasked with providing high-profile traffic enforcement on major national routes, including motorways, working out of 10 bases across Scotland.
Sexual offences
The reform plans will include the creation of a national rape investigation unit in a bid to combat a traditionally low conviction rate. The unit will feature officers who will look at unsolved rape cases or cases where the evidence is disputed.
Domestic abuse
A scheme is to be set up to allow victims of domestic abuse to report crimes without having to go to a police station. Strathclyde Police have been using the system since 2009, with a high success rate. The move has been welcomed by Scottish Women's Aid.
Firearms
The single force will allow specialist firearms cover to be stepped up in quieter and more rural areas of Scotland.
A network of armed police response units will be deployed across the country for the first time to give all areas the same level of protection.
All 14 divisions of the new single force will have access to the response units, which will be arranged in hubs located throughout Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article